SoftwareCEO - Tips from Journyx's CEO

SoftwareCEO - Tips from Journyx's CEO http://www.softwareceo.com?src=blog_rss <p>Tips & Tricks from Software CEO Curt Finch</p> Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:28:35 GMT admin@softwareceo.com SoftwareCEO 60 SoftwareCEO http://www.softwareceo.com/brand/sceo/community.gif http://www.softwareceo.com?src=blog_rss The Technical Support Project: How to Create a Winning Team, Part 2 http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48259/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-2/?src=blog_rss This is part two of a three-part article series. You can see part one here. Staffing is the most critical part of creating a winning technical support team. If you make mistakes with the steps discussed in my first article but excel at hiring and managing your people, you will succeed in the end. If, however, you do well with the mechanics and make mistakes with staffing, you will certainly fail. Your Staff Today Even if your current staff is doing a good job, you will still have to bring new people in to help you rise from the ashes. I know you don’t want to fire the people you have today—that can be unpleasant—so give it some time and the problem will probably resolve itself for you. Your current staff will naturally turn over when they get tired of listening to complaining and blaming. Your task will then be to hire better than you have in the past. The Hiring Process Each employee comes with their own set of technical skills, personality quirks and attitudes, so give plenty of thought to what your hiring criteria will be before you even begin. The easiest way to approach this is to...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48259/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-2/">[Read more]</div> Strategy and Leadership Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:28:33 GMT Curt Finch http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48259/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-2/#discussion?src=blog_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48259/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-2/?src=blog_rss The Technical Support Project: How to Create a Winning Team, Part 1 http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48109/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-1/?src=blog_rss You might compare technical support to a team of jugglers. It requires a lot of communication and teamwork to be able to handle flying bowling balls, knives, flaming batons and pianos. For instance, you will need to know when a baton or knife is heading your way, or who will be able to catch the piano. There are three big processes to put in place in order to facilitate the communication required to do this juggling. Decide on 3-5 levels of case severity and decide on service requirements for each (how quickly you intend to respond and fix). If you already have priorities defined in your maintenance contracts, try to use them. Discuss the plan with your team and make sure they understand that top priority cases must be addressed first, so someone must pay attention to incoming cases and prioritize them immediately. If you find that you don’t have the time to fix a problem so the customer never sees it, an alternative is to publish the solution in order to allow them to solve problems themselves. If you don’t have the time to provide all of the necessary technical details, you can write up a rough version and...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48109/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-1/">[Read more]</div> Strategy and Leadership Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:25:59 GMT Curt Finch http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48109/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-1/#discussion?src=blog_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/48109/The-Technical-Support-Project-How-to-Create-a-Winning-Team-Part-1/?src=blog_rss Defining Web 2.0 http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46126/Defining-Web-2_0/?src=blog_rss There is a lot of disagreement about what the phrase Web 2.0 means. Let’s clear that up. One answer is that Web 2.0 refers to the propensity of recent Internet applications to be more collaborative and provide for a richer user experience. Web1.0 was a Web site that looked like a brochure or a resume. Web 2.0 is a blog. Web1.0 was your newspaper’s classified ads, just webified. Web 2.0 is eBay or craigslist. Web1.0 was Netscape (i.e. here’s some software). Web 2.0 is Google (there’s nothing to install but it’s powerful). Web 2.0 is about harnessing collective intelligence and eliminating the software release cycle – it’s about providing services, not products. It’s about trusting users as co-developers of content or even of technology. As an example, Amazon.com does this with its user review system. A more cynical definition of Web 2.0, found in the blogosphere in Europe, (where they tend to be more conservative about technology) is ‘Bubble2.0’. What they mean by this is that some marketers have gone off of the deep end applying this term to anything. And they’re right. Europeans are always right (just ask them). Bubble1.0, of course, burst in March of 2000 when the...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46126/Defining-Web-2_0/">[Read more]</div> Strategy and Leadership Services and Support Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:09:21 GMT Curt Finch http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46126/Defining-Web-2_0/#discussion?src=blog_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46126/Defining-Web-2_0/?src=blog_rss How To Avoid An Evil Datacenter http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46062/How-To-Avoid-An-Evil-Datacenter/?src=blog_rss As with most companies, we store the bulk of our data internally on our network here at the corporate headquarters, but we also store a fair bit of it at our datacenter. We have software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications which we host for our customers, as well as for ourselves. We have our web site, of course, which must be up and running 24x7 or my CEO calls me up in a panic. We have an FTP server for support, as well as one for the public, etc. You get the picture. We’ve got resources that are needed by our remote employees as well as our customers. In essence, we need a reliable 24x7, redundant, fast way for our people and the world to access our data. If this sounds familiar to you, you might be in the same boat that we were in. We needed a datacenter. I’m oversimplifying our needs a bit, since we are a hosted service provider for literally hundreds of organizations around the world. You see, with the software that Journyx creates, you can either host it locally on one of your own servers, or you can ask us to do it for you, taking away that...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46062/How-To-Avoid-An-Evil-Datacenter/">[Read more]</div> Services and Support Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:04:08 GMT Curt Finch http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46062/How-To-Avoid-An-Evil-Datacenter/#discussion?src=blog_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/46062/How-To-Avoid-An-Evil-Datacenter/?src=blog_rss How To Get Payroll To Max Profitability Throughout The Company http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45946/How-To-Get-Payroll-To-Max-Profitability-Throughout-The-Company/?src=blog_rss When payroll executives implement time and attendance systems to automate payroll, they often miss the chance to facilitate greater profitability throughout the entire company. These executives are, of course, payroll experts. They are usually not, however, experts at project management or billing automation. The time data they collect, if collected appropriately, can also be used to automate project management , project costing, project tracking and project estimation improvement, as well as for internal, external and reverse billing automation. Most payroll and HR executives know little about these subjects, but increasingly, they are being asked to rise to new challenges. These new challenges are being caused by the tectonic shift from capital businesses to people businesses. This is a shift of valuing time as much as money. About 50 years ago, when most people twisted bolts in a factory, workers were not considered volunteers, they were not empowered, and managing the money of the company (i.e. the capital) was much more important than maximizing the time and knowledge of the worker. Such businesses are called capital businesses because power and wealth flowed from the capital. Today, capital businesses are on the wane and businesses are becoming people businesses. Simple manufacturing has...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45946/How-To-Get-Payroll-To-Max-Profitability-Throughout-The-Company/">[Read more]</div> Strategy and Leadership Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:42:52 GMT Curt Finch http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45946/How-To-Get-Payroll-To-Max-Profitability-Throughout-The-Company/#discussion?src=blog_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45946/How-To-Get-Payroll-To-Max-Profitability-Throughout-The-Company/?src=blog_rss The Future of Project Management Software - Probably! http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45753/The-Future-of-Project-Management-Software-Probably/?src=blog_rss Over the last decade or so, the industry has shifted from customers installing software at their physical locations to renting Web-based software over the Internet on a monthly basis. It’s moving this way because customers want it to, and so do vendors. Most software companies get their revenue from “ shelfware ” (software that is rarely used and ends up on the proverbial shelf). Popular programs like Quicken or SAP – for which customers pay the total cost up front – can be complicated, making them difficult to use and achieve maximum benefit from. However, once a customer has paid for these programs, there is no incentive for the company to follow up and ensure that it is working properly for the customer. But hold on, things might be improving. Newer companies like Concur (expense reimbursement), Salesforce.com (sales automation), Hire.com (recruiting and hiring automation), and Taleo (also recruiting and hiring automation) are turning out to be quite successful in renting software over the Web to their customers. If customers sign up for a monthly service from one of these companies and the solution doesn’t work, customers will likely stop using the software after a month. This gives these software providers...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45753/The-Future-of-Project-Management-Software-Probably/">[Read more]</div> Licensing Issues Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:08:56 GMT Curt Finch http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45753/The-Future-of-Project-Management-Software-Probably/#discussion?src=blog_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45753/The-Future-of-Project-Management-Software-Probably/?src=blog_rss